Hydraulic despotism
Hydraulic despotism is a term for for
despotic rule supported by control of a single, necessary resource. In its first instances, it was literally
water that was controlled: in
Egypt and
Babylonia in the BCE era, the
government controlled the irrigation channels; good subjects received plentiful water for their
crops, while bad subjects were starved of water so that their crops died. The term can be used to indicate any tyrannical rule propped up by control of a vital resource.